Iowa Students First,
built into the dashboard.

How Iowa's Students First ESA works

Iowa's Students First Education Savings Accounts fund private school tuition and other approved education expenses through a per-student account. The award for the 2026-27 school year is $8,148 per student.

Iowa contracted Odyssey for full program administration: family accounts, provider approvals, and disbursements all run on the Odyssey platform. If you find older material describing a ClassWallet flow for Iowa, it is out of date.

Becoming an Iowa ESA provider

Provider onboarding runs in the Odyssey provider portal: Iowa business registration, a W-9 matching the legal name, your tuition and fee schedule, background check coverage where the program requires it, and bank verification for direct deposit. Confirm category-specific requirements with the Iowa Department of Education.

CohortLedger's Iowa vendor wizard carries these steps with per-step document tracking and renewal reminders.

Reporting cadence and operator obligations

Operators keep enrollment, attendance, and tuition records per ESA student and meet the program's periodic reporting expectations through Odyssey. The compliance calendar ships with a quarterly attendance and progress task plus the annual provider renewal, recurring automatically with reminders before each due date.

What CohortLedger does for Iowa operators

Per-student award tracking against the $8,148 annual figure, quarterly invoices split into ESA and family-paid portions, Odyssey deposit reconciliation, and a one-click audit packet with dated attendance and compliance entries. The Iowa checklist loads the moment you pick IA at signup.